Draft plans for nature’s recovery across Cheshire & Warrington launched
Cheshire West and Chester Council as ‘responsible body’ has today published the draft Local Nature Recovery Strategy for Cheshire and Warrington, supported by Cheshire East Council, Warrington Borough Council, Peak District National Park Authority, Natural England alongside the Environment Agency and Forestry Commission.
The Environment Act 2021 required all areas in England to establish Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs) aimed at bringing public, private and voluntary sectors together to work more effectively for nature’s recovery and enable a collective effort to be focussed where it will have most benefit.
Councillor Louise Gittins, Leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council said:
The vision of the strategy is to help wildlife thrive, improve our ecological network, to target investment in nature to help us adapt to climate change and improve places where we live and work. We’d like as many people as possible throughout the county talking about wildlife, responding to the consultation to help us and our partners to refine the proposals and ideas for what we can do together to deliver a ‘wilder’ Cheshire.
The draft strategy is community and partnership led. It has been developed through more than a year of extensive public engagement, events, working with the Local Nature Partnership and a huge range of individual stakeholder conversations across Cheshire West, Cheshire East and Warrington, to develop a vision, priorities and proposed actions to be taken for nature.
The draft LNRS can be viewed at : www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/LNRSconsultation where everyone can find out more and complete the survey, with links to draft maps to assist.
The document will also be available at several libraries and public locations, promoted on the website, with paper copies and other formats available on request.
The Council is keen for landowners to review the strategy and the places that have been mapped with potential for investment and improvements to benefit nature. The Council wants to know where landowners are keen to work with partners, to attract resources and offer support to help nature over the next five to ten years.
It is intended that feedback from this consultation will help further shape a final ‘Cheshire and Warrington Local Nature Recovery Strategy’ that should be agreed and adopted by all three Local Authorities mid-summer 2025.
Feedback from the consultation will be made available on the Council’s website. It is intended that the Local Nature Partnership will work with the Local Authorities to develop an action plan to support the strategy, to agree how its members can work together to deliver agreed priorities, drive positive change and encourage broader action all to help nature across Cheshire and Warrington.